Race 1 Blog

1430: Race 2 of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final has been postponed to tomorrow. Two races are planned, with the starts scheduled for 1:10 pm PT and 2:10 pm.

1412: The start of Race 2 has been set for 1437. The wind limit will be 19.7 knots, based on a -1.3-knot current correction factor.

1403: Emirates Team New Zealand won today’s first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final in a walkover win versus Luna Rossa Challenge. The Italian crew withdrew from the race with problems to its starboard daggerboard suffered in the pre-start. The crew temporarily fixed the problem, but it returned on the first leg and forced the team out after the first mark rounding. Emirates Team New Zealand completed the 9.95-nautical-mile course in 31 minutes, 3 seconds.

Emirates Team New Zealand completed the course, but scared themselves stark white when rounding the windward mark. The hulls of Aotearoa buried up to the main crossbeam, dropping the boatspeed from 40.7 knots to 13 knots and flicking two crew, Rob Waddell and Chris Ward, overboard. The two sailors were recovered by the team’s chase boat apparently unharmed.

Luna Rossa has returned to its base and we’re awaiting word if Race 2 will occur.

1348: Emirates Team New Zealand rounded the windward mark to starboard and dug the bows in to the main crossbeam in a violent maneuver. Two crew, Rob Waddell and Chris ward went overboard and were recovered by the team’s chase boat apparently unharmed. But Aotearoa suffered damage to the fairing on the aft side of the main crossbeam.

1332: Emirates Team New Zealand wins the start of Race 1. Luna Rossa, however, seems to have a problem again with the starboard daggerboard, which was bouncing around in the trunk without control.

1322: The race committee has set a new start time of 1330. The wind is down to about 15 knots with peaks at 17 knots. The Luna Rossa crew has also fixed the problem with the starboard daggerboard.

1306: The race has been postponed to 1320 due to the wind strength exceeding the 18.9-knot limit. There also appears to be a problem with the starboard daggerboard on Luna Rossa.

1305: Welcome to the live racing blog for the first day of the 30th anniversary Louis Vuitton Cup Final. The wind is blowing about 16 knots from 220 degrees, with gusts up to 19 knots. The wind limit for this race is 18.9 knots and the start is scheduled for 1310.

UPDATE 1145 hours

ORACLE TEAM USA has concluded the first of its two scheduled practice races. Spithill beat Ainslie on the starting line and led him – narrowly – around the rest of the course for a 34-second win.

The Louis Vuitton Cup Final gets under way at 1:10pm PT, with Emirates Team New Zealand against Luna Rossa Challenge.

“We are focused on sailing a really solid race,” said Chris Draper, the helmsman of Luna Rossa. “We now the Kiwis are very good on the starts, so we’ll have to see how it plays out.”

UPDATE: 1045 hours

The wind limits might be a problem for the second race of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. The limits for the two races are 18.9 knots and 19.4 knots, taking into account an ebb tide. The wind is forecast to build well into the 20s this afternoon, which might hamper the best efforts to get racing completed.

“The first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final has a -2.1 current correction for a wind limit of 18.9 knots,” said Regatta Director Iain Murray at this morning’s briefing. “If we get through to the second race the tide’s easing off and the correction factor is -1.6, so the limit is 19.4 knots. That’s going to be the challenge today, the wind limit. We are expecting the breeze to increase as the day goes on. We’re pretty confident to get the first race in, but not the last race of the day.”

The wind limits shouldn’t be a problem for ORACLE TEAM USA’s defender practice racing this morning. The wind limits are 20.2 knots and 19.1 knots, but the wind isn’t expect to build more than 15 to 17 knots.

San Francisco Bay will be alive with the Summer of Racing today with three teams and four boats plying the choppy waters.

The main show of the day is the start of the 30th anniversary Louis Vuitton Cup Final, between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Challenge. The two teams also met in the previous Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007 with the Kiwis coming out on top. They are the favored team in this series, but Luna Rossa’s sailors will be looking to show how far they’ve developed since the start of the series last month.

“I think we’ve improved quite a lot our boathandling and the crew in general since the round robin,” said Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena. “If it’s enough to beat them, I don’t know. They’ve been the strongest team since the start. It would be great for us to take at least one point from them. We will fight hard in the pre-start to put them under pressure.”

Race 1 is scheduled to start at 1:10 pm PT, and Race 2 at 2:10 pm PT. Today’s Louis Vuitton Cup racing won’t be shown live on the America’s Cup YouTube channel in the U.S. due to territorial restrictions with NBC. The races will air on NBC Sports Network on tape delay at 6:00 pm ET/3:00 pm PT. International viewers will be able to watch live on YouTube beginning at 1:00 pm PT, subject to territorial restrictions.

Before that, ORACLE TEAM USA will have its two AC72s on the racecourse for some in-house racing beginning at 11:00. Skipper Jimmy Spithill and helmsman Ben Ainslie will be guiding the two black cats and putting on a show.

“We’re able to make it much tighter and much closer and try different options which under the pressure of a Louis Vuitton Cup race you wouldn’t be able to do, so I think the two boat training we’re doing is a massive benefit,” said Ainslie.

The first race between ORACLE TEAM USA’s yachts is scheduled for 11:10 am and will be shown live on the America’s Cup YouTube channel, beginning at 11:00 am.